Fascinating Facts - Christmas Cake

Christmas fruitcake is a type of dense, rich cake that is popular around Christmas time. The cake consists of a variety of dried or candied fruits, nuts, and spices and may be light or dark, crumbly-moist to sticky-wet, spongy to heavy and it is sometimes soaked in Cognac or other types of brandy.

It is not a very well known fact that the Christmas cake started out as porridge

Christmas cake is an English tradition that began as plum porridge. People ate the porridge on Christmas Eve, using it to line their stomachs after a day of fasting. Soon dried fruit, spices and honey were added to the porridge mixture, and eventually it turned into Christmas pudding.

In the 16th century, oatmeal was removed from the original recipe, and butter, wheat flour and eggs were added. These ingredients helped hold the mixture together and in what resulted in a boiled plum cake.

All Christmas cakes are made in advance. Many make them in November, keeping the cake upside down in an airtight container. A small amount of brandy, sherry or whisky is poured into holes in the cake every week until Christmas. This process is called “feeding” the cake.

Christmas cakes are made many different ways, but generally they are variations on classic fruitcake.